After having explored the legal framework of child rights and child protection as well as the different cultural attitudes and values about children and childhood.

Module 1 focuses on the illustration and definitions of different forms of child abuse. Through practical examples and concrete exercises, the participants share their own experiences gained from the fieldwork in order to elaborate a mutual understanding on critical and warning challenges while working with children. The core elements and standards of a Child Protection Policy such as Recruitment procedures, Code of Conduct, Communication guidelines, Case Management etc. will be reviewed for enabling the participants to actively start with the process of developing procedures and measures in order to establish a child friendly and safe environment within their own organizations.

Module 2 is a platform for sharing experiences and challenges in the elaboration and implementation process. There will be a special focus on the implementation of the Child Protection Policy and of Child Protection Initiatives on project level as well as on children’s participation in child protection procedures.

Module 3 will give partners the chance to reflect and exchange experiences on the implementation of different child protection initiatives. Furthermore, special focus will be given to the handling of cases within the case management systems as well as to efforts to network with other organisations and institutions on regional and national level to improve the child protection system in the country.

Gunmen have attacked and set ablaze a Guarani Indian community in south west Brazil.

Initial reports indicated that a one year old baby had burned to death when the gunmen torched the Indians’ houses on June 24, but this has not subsequently been confirmed.

The Guarani fled the area, and two girls and one boy are reported to be missing.

The Indians of Kurusu Mba community peacefully re-occupied part of their ancestral land on June 22, having waited many years for it to be returned to them.

They were soon surrounded by gunmen who, according to one Guarani man, “fired shots above our heads.” The ranchers and farmers who now occupy almost all Guarani land frequently employ armed men to terrorize the Indians.

A Guarani spokesman said they occupied their land because
“We can no longer bear living with pesticides, hunger and waiting for the government [to act].”

Many Guarani are being subjected to brutal and intolerable attacks as they wait in vain for the authorities to recognize their land rights. In a video just sent by Guarani to Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, Tupã Guarani of Pyelito Kue community shows the remains of his house after it was burned down by gunmen. He says his family have lost all their belongings.

Kurusu Mba has suffered many violent attacks in the past. Kurete Lopes, a 70 year old religious leader, was murdered by gunmen in 2007, as was another leader, Ortiz Lopes. Another man, Osvaldo Lopes, was murdered in 2009.

The community is hemmed in by soya plantations. Intensive pesticide spraying pollutes the streams the Indians use for drinking water.

Participants from organisations dealing with projects and programmes of development cooperation in all fields being responsible or involved in activities of project cycle management. Knowledge of formalized planning procedures like logframe-planning and the use of project cycle management are appreciated.

Objectives

·Participants have a better understanding of the significance of "impact orientation" in the field of development cooperation and for their concrete project work.

·Participants are in a position to increase the impact of their projects by practicing impact oriented project planning and monitoring.

Topic

In the last years the expectation that development projects focus more on their impacts (rather than just the smooth implementation of the project measures) has risen dramatically. More than ever organisations in this field need to be able to demonstrate their projects’ contributions to development goals as well as their capacity to work in an impact oriented manner. Project staff need to be able to maximise the wanted impacts while at the same time having an eye on unwanted and potential negative impacts.

The schedule and the proposed outline can be found on our web page or Facebook. As the workshop language will be English it is necessary that participants are fluent in the same.

Registration and organisational details

The cost per person for the workshop are 26.500 Rs. / 400 Euro incl. food / accommodation during the 'workshop days', transport from station /airport Coimbatore to KKID & Return, training materials and course fee. The costs have to be settled directly with KKID, Coimbatore. Taxes as applicable will be extra and shall be borne by the participant.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Agriculture is Rwanda’s main economic sector, employing around 80 percent of the population. Though there is great potential for growth, farmers are limited by small farm size, declining soil fertility and limited access to value addition services. In collaboration with the national government, the World Food Programme’s Purchase for Progress (P4P) project is working to help smallholder farmers meet their potential to improve livelihoods and strengthen the national economy.

The Government is expanding pro-smallholder support under “Common P4P”

The Government of Rwanda is taking ownership of and scaling up P4P under a state-run initiative called “Common P4P” (CP4P), which is increasing the reach of efforts to support smallholder farmers. Government efforts have been key in improving quality control, supporting farmers with inputs and training, and providing farmers with a market under the National Strategic Grain Reserve. Between 2011 and 2014, the Government of Rwanda purchased more than 10,000 metric tons (worth an estimated US$4.5 million) of commodities from cooperatives under CP4P for the National Strategic Grain Reserve.

Other buyers are making more purchases from smallholder farmers

Under P4P, milling companies such as SOSOMA and MINIMEX were linked to P4P-supported cooperatives to demonstrate the feasibility of buying from smallholder farmers’ cooperatives. Many other buyers have also learned from the P4P approach to pro-smallholder procurement, and are now making purchases from smallholder farmers in the country. Big off takers include the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Rwanda Cereal and Grain Corporation (RGCC) and SARURA Commodities Ltd. These buyers learned from the P4P experience, particularly on good practices for contracting with farmers and ensuring quality standards.

Land fragmentation limits production

As a small country with a large and growing population, land fragmentation poses a major challenge to agriculture in Rwanda. Much of the country’s land is broken into small fragmented parcels. This means that one family may have small plots of land in many different locations, reducing the efficiency of their agricultural labour and restricting the use of mechanization. Since 2007, the government has implemented a Crop Intensification Programme to mitigate this challenge, increasing productivity through land use consolidation and increased use of agricultural inputs. P4P and CP4P both responded to and stimulated the production surplus created by these efforts.

Smallholder farmers are accessing loans

P4P and partners work with the Rabobank Foundation to help smallholder farmers’ cooperatives access credit. Cooperatives have undergone training in financial literacy, improving their ability to manage finances and increasing their access to loans. Access to credit is vital for farmers to invest in increasing productivity and aggregating crops for sale, enabling the timely purchase of farming inputs – such as seeds and fertilizers – and allowing farmers’ organizations to pay smallholders with cash as soon as they have delivered their crops.

Officials from other governments are learning from Rwanda

P4P has facilitated exchange visits to Rwanda by government officials from countries including Burkina Faso, Ghana and Kenya. These visits have provided insight as to how government ownership and pro-smallholder market development policies can generate meaningful and lasting change.

Muhawenimana Triphonie uses her mobile phone to get information on market prices. Using this information, and marketing skills learned under P4P, she is now able to earn fair prices for her maize. - Copyright: WFP/JohnPaul Sesonga

Thursday, June 25, 2015

A consortium of international emergency response organizations launched a far-reaching, free online training tool designed to help those on the front lines of emergency response better understand and work within the humanitarian coordination system. Released in English last year, the tool is now being made available to French- and Arabic-speaking participants, creating an important opportunity for a whole new audience of first responders in need of training.

The online tool, which can be accessed at BuildingABetterResponse.org, consists of five units: Foundations of Humanitarian Action, the International Humanitarian Architecture, the Cluster Approach, Planning and Funding the Humanitarian Response; and International Law and Humanitarian Standards. The course was developed after consultation with more than 400 national and international NGO staff and industry experts. Learners who successfully complete the online course will be granted a certificate from the Humanitarian Academy at Harvard.

Millions of people have been affected or displaced in the past few years by disasters such as the recent earthquakes in Nepal, or the conflict in Syria, With an increasing number of organizations seeking to provide assistance to affected populations, there are many actors on the ground and a growing pressure to coordinate relief efforts.

The online course is unique in its flexibility and was specifically designed for use by staff of local agencies in the field. E-learning units can be taken in any order, can be accessed through hand-held devices, and the entire course is optimized to stream for low bandwidth usage. The training, offered by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative at Harvard University in partnership with International Medical Corps and Concern Worldwide and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, employs simulation-based learning to guide users through an interactive experience that builds their knowledge about humanitarian coordination.

To date, over 9,000 users have registered for the training in English. The translation of the e-learning into Arabic and French was driven by strong demand from the global humanitarian community. It is anticipated that the online learning will now reach thousands more emergency responders both at the headquarters level and working in the field.

About Concern Worldwide

Concern Worldwide is an international non-governmental organization dedicated to reducing extreme poverty and has nearly 3,000 personnel working in 29 countries around the world in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. Concern Worldwide targets the root causes of extreme poverty through programs in health, education, livelihoods and microfinance, HIV and AIDS, and emergency response, directly reaching nearly 7.4 million people in 2014.

Located in Central Africa, DR Congo has vast arable land and a potential to feed the most of Africa. About 90 percent of the country’s population in the rural areas is engaged in agriculture. Furthermore, the country plays host to more than 50 percent of Africa’s surface water.

“Yet the country depends on food imports, and this is not good for the country,” Dr Ulimwengu said.

“We hope that collaborating with IITA will help us advance and bring benefits of agricultural research to our country,” he added.

Dr Nteranya Sanginga, IITA Director General pledged the commitment of IITA to collaborate with the government of DR Congo.

“We are ready to work with you and other countries in Africa to see how we can increase agricultural productivity and engage the youths in the sector so that they have decent jobs,” Dr Sanginga said.

Last year, DR Congo gave IITA a grant of $3m to help support youth engagement in agriculture. The mineral-rich country is optimistic that a partnership with IITA would help accelerate its agricultural development akin to what has happened in Nigeria. In context, IITA’s Research-for-Development model has contributed in making Nigeria the world’s largest producer of cassava, cowpea and yams. Research on soybean has also been accelerated with a significant increase in domestic utilization of the crop.

Drs Ulimwengu and Masankisa, who arrived Nigeria on Monday, took a tour of IITA campus, and visited labs, the IITA Business Incubation Platform, IITA Youth Agripreneurs’ fish ponds, fish hatchery, postharvest unit, International Livestock Research Institute and Niji Farms.

Several areas of interests emerged as the officials were impressed with the IITA Youth Agripreneur model and the value chain approach of the Institute which encompasses crop improvement in terms of productivity, and food safety especially the aflasafe technology.

“We are interested in all that we have seen here especially the youth program and useof aflasafe technology to control aflatoxin in maize and groundnuts,” Dr Ulimwengu said.

At ILRI, the team met Dr Okike Iheanacho who explained the work of his organization with particular emphasis on the use of cassava peels for feeds for livestock.

“Our goal is to convert what could be environmental menace to a valuable commodity for animals. This will save food for human consumption and reduce competition between livestock and human beings,” he explained.

Dr Masankisa described the visit to Niji Farms in Ilero as an eye opener and a demonstration of a can-do spirit in Africans.

Niji Farms sits on more than a thousand and two hundred hectares, and there are plans for further expansion. The farm is integrated, comprising cassava, maize, poultry and goats. The farm processes cassava into High Quality Cassava Flour, fufu, yam flour and gari, which commands high demand from the United Kingdom.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Site is hub for researchers, policymakers to alleviate the effects of food price and climate shocks

While Africa south of the Sahara has made substantial improvements to its food security in recent years, one in four people in the region remains undernourished. A new web portal launched today that focuses on agriculture, food security, and nutrition in Africa south of the Sahara has been designed to strengthen capacity for timely food security information, policy research, and analysis to ensure the continued improvement of the region?s food and nutrition security.

?The portal will host a broad set of open data related to food and nutrition security and early warning mechanisms, as well as opportunities for dialogue among policymakers, researchers, the private sector, and other stakeholders,? said Maximo Torero, Director of the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

The blogs on the portal provide detailed summaries of recent research on a variety of topics related to food and nutrition security, including food access, input markets, and risk and resilience. It is hoped that this environment of open information-sharing and dialogue will help to increase the resilience of the region?s poor to possible food-related crises, including price and climate shocks.

The portal also hosts a series of interactive maps tracking important economic and agricultural indicators throughout the continent, including cereal yields, harvest times, and soil composition. But as Dr. Torero points out, the portal?s major innovation will be its people.

?While the accuracy and relevance of information in the SSA-FSP is of utmost importance, it will not translate into policies without dissemination, appropriate training, or synergies between users,? he says. ?Rather than fostering an association of organizations, we propose to create a network of individuals and institutions engaged in the international, national, and local policy-making process in SSA. Such an approach will considerably reduce bureaucratic delays and will provide for more dynamic interaction among stakeholders.?

This interaction will include virtual dialogues to be hosted on the site beginning this summer. The dialogues will feature both a live panel discussion with experts in the field of food and nutrition security as well as an open online discussion forum and will discuss such topics as climate change adaptation, women?s inclusion, and using value chains for enhanced nutrition.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRIwas established in 1975 to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting the food needs of the developing world, with particular emphasis on low-income countries and on the poorer groups in those countries. www.ifpri.org.

White Plains, NY (June 22, 2015) – On Wednesday, June 3, New York Giants CEO and Co-Owner John Mara joined My Sisters’ Place (MSP) for the dedication of its new emergency residential shelter and to commemorate the installation of the MSP Dream Maker Donor Wall.

“Our long lasting partnerships with the New York Giants and the Mara Family are key to our ability to promote awareness around the issues of domestic violence and human trafficking and to make significant social change in communities, encompassing all age groups,” said MSP CEO Karen Cheeks-Lomax, Esq.

As MSP partners, the New York Giants have been proactive with promoting awareness and taking a stand against the harsh realities of these issues as professionals, fathers, brothers, husbands and leaders for over 18 years.

“My Sisters’ Place is providing critical life-changing services. We are proud to stand strong with this organization and thrilled to be represented and included in the Dream Maker Donor Wall,” said John Mara.

In 1977, My Sisters’ Place, originally the Yonkers’ Women’s Task Force, opened its first safe home. Thirty-eight years later, MSP is proud to have increased its capacity to serve more individuals and families in crisis across Westchester County and the greater New York area.

About My Sisters’ Place
Since 1976, My Sisters’ Place (MSP) has worked to change the way our community thinks about violence in intimate relationships and combat the effects of domestic violence and human trafficking. Holistic services include: a 24/7 crisis hotline, two emergency residential shelters, one-on-one and group counseling for adults and children, a Center for Legal Services, professional outreach and a vibrant tween/teen education and prevention program. MSP strives to engage each member of society in their work so that all relationships can embrace the principles of respect, equality, and peacefulness.

A crisis of human suffering is being created at Europe’s borders, with thousands of people risking life and limb to reach safety in Europe left with little or no assistance. Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warns of the shameful consequences of EU member states ignoring their humanitarian duty and calls on EU leaders to radically rethink their policies to offer safe and legal ways for people to seek refuge and asylum in Europe.

Ahead of the European Council meeting on 25-26 June, MSF specifically calls on EU leaders to immediately deploy adequate resources, enabling Greece and Italy to effectively ensure proper protection and humane reception conditions at arrival points. The governments of Italy and Greece also need to show a clear commitment to improve conditions for migrants and asylum seekers arriving at their borders.

“This is an orchestrated humanitarian crisis, created by the failure of the European Union to put in place adequate and humane policies and practices to deal with this issue” says AureliePonthieu, MSF migration advisor. “The deteriorating situation is not due to unmanageable numbers of migrants and refugees. It is a direct result of chronic shortcomings in the European Union’s policies in handling the new arrivals. Member states spend their time talking about closing borders, building fences, and issuing threatening ultimatums to each other. That will not stop people coming, and will just undermine any collaborative efforts to assist people in need”.

Even more shamefully, in the face of extreme suffering, key Member States have taken a more hardline stance: France and Austria reinforced border controls; Italy threatened to prevent foreign boats from disembarking migrants; and Hungary announced a wall on its border with Serbia.

MSF’s medical data from its projects for migrants in Italy and Greece show that the majority of the medical conditions are due to poor reception conditions, as well as wounds and trauma suffered on the long and dangerous journeys. Because health needs are not being addressed adequately by the authorities, MSF provides medical services and mental health support.

“The current system, which includes the Dublin regulation, is clearly not working. Returning vulnerable people to Italy under the Dublin regulation should immediately be suspended. Urgent action should be taken to allow asylum seekers entering though EU’s southern borders to get the assistance and protection they are entitled to according to EU directives” says Loris de Filippi, President of MSF Italy.

In Italy, where the number of new arrivals is similar to the one during the same period last year, the reception system is under strain and will collapse in the next few weeks if no action is taken. Reception centres in Sicily struggle to provide adequate and humane reception conditions while hundreds of refugees in transit are massing in informal settlements in Italy’s main cities and at the French border in Ventimiglia, where MSF launched a short intervention to respond to basic needs.

Greece is dealing with a significant increase in refugee arrivals but the reception system is almost inexistent and conditions are increasingly worrying. On Kos island, MSF is the only organization providing medical care and improving living conditions inside the Captain Elias camp – a dilapidated building which is the only place made available by authorities for refugees and migrants to stay while awaiting permission from the police to leave the island, which can take several weeks.

Following the death of over 1800 people this year, the funding for Search and Rescue at sea has finally tripled over the past month. However, very little is done to provide assistance and proper reception conditions.

“We want to see the same determination to put in place dignified and humane reception conditions in Europe.” says AureliePonthieu. “Instead of arguing over solidarity amongst member states, it is time for the EU to take concrete action in helping the people fleeing terrible humanitarian crises and to agree on policies that are effective, humane and based on compassion for people, rather than a hostile discourse of institutional rejection.”

Many health structures in Hama and Idlib have been forced to close or to drastically cut their activities due to a lack of fuel for electricity generators and transport. With supply routes for fuel cut due to recent fighting between armed groups in parts of northern Syria, diesel has been difficult to obtain since 14 June and prices have increased by up to 500%. Prices of other items have consequently also increased in local markets, and the shortage has interrupted the production of basic food items like bread.

Hama and Idlib Health Administrations issued urgent distress calls on 15 and 16 June respectively, announcing that their health structures were reducing activities due to lack of fuel and that they may be forced to shut in the coming days if no fuel became available. Hospitals in other areas have also called for help, while the Syrian Civil Defence warned that the fuel shortages could force them to halt their aid activities in Aleppo, Hama, Idlib and Lattakia.

“The medical situation in northern Syria was already difficult for the population,” said DouniaDekhili, MSF Programme Manager for Syria. “With so many hospitals now at a risk of closure, the lives of many Syrians are in even greater danger. Fuel is needed to run water pumps for clean water, to run incubators for newborns and to run ambulances for lifesaving care.”

While the MSF hospital in Atmeh still has a few weeks’ worth of fuel, it has had to take measures to reduce its consumption. MSF has received requests for fuel from a number of hospitals which it supports in northern Syria and has started to provide some donations of fuel. Some 6,200 litres of fuel have so far been provided to 15 health structures in Aleppo, Idlib and Hama governorates as well as to ambulance networks, with more donations planned in the coming days.

MSF is assessing the needs of the rest of the hospitals it supports in northern Syria and continues to monitor the situation, but communication with some hospitals where the generators have stopped has been impossible.

“The support we are providing will only have a short term impact,” said Dekhili. “We call for a mobilisation of fuel assistance in line with the massive and immediate needs of the Syrian people, to allow essential services such as hospitals, ambulances and bakeries to function.”

Following a collaboration between the Amazon Indian Nixiwaka Yawanawá and British painter John Dyer to create a series of paintings at the U.K.’s Eden Project, the two artists will invite children around the world to submit their artworks inspired by the rainforest.

Nixiwaka Yawanawá and John Dyer are currently creating a series of paintings collectively called "Spirit of the Rainforest" to emphasize the need to protect the rainforest and tribal peoples that live in them for future generations. Their residency at Eden’s Rainforest Biome – the largest captive rainforest in the world – will end on May 15, 2015.

From June 1, children will be encouraged to submit their own works inspired by the rainforest to the Eden Project online. The best pieces will be displayed among the plants in the Rainforest Biome in an exhibition at Eden from October 17, 2015.

Amazon Indian Nixiwaka Yawanawá has been working with Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, to raise awareness of the threats to tribal peoples and their lands, and to spread the message that tribal peoples are the best conservationists and guardians of the natural world.

Nixiwaka said, “When we see harm come to the rainforest, it is as if a part of our own body has been hurt. It feels like an illness that rises up in us and needs to be cured.”

British artist John Dyer said, “The rainforest is a vital part of our lives and our future. We don’t all realise this yet but the tribal people of the Amazon know it. By engaging children with the rainforest through art I hope it will build a lifelong concern and connection to the environment.”

In celebration of Environment Day on Friday, June 5, Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, showcases tribal peoples’ fascinating conservation skills and intimate knowledge of their environments.

- Awá Indians in Brazil’s north-eastern Amazon rainforest know at least 275 useful plants, and at least 31 species of honey-producing bee. Each bee type is associated with another rainforest animal like the tortoise or the tapir. Read more.

- Baka “Pygmies” of Central Africa eat 14 kinds of wild honey and more than 10 types of wild yam. By leaving part of the root intact in the soil, the Baka spread pockets of wild yams – a favorite food of elephants and wild boar – throughout the forest. Read more.

- The Bushmen consume over 150 species of plant and their diet is high in vitamins and nutrients. Yet Africa’s last hunting Bushmen in Botswana are abused, tortured and arrested when found hunting to feed their families. Read more.

- Baiga in India have set up their own project to “save the forest from the forest department” – setting out rules for their own community and outsiders to protect the forest and its biodiversity. As a result, the availability of water supply has increased and they have been able to collect more herbs and medicines from the forest. Read more.

There are many more examples of how tribal peoples are the best conservationists and guardians of the natural world – satellite images and academic studies have shown that indigenous peoples provide a vital barrier to deforestation of their lands. Yet tribal peoples are being illegally evicted from their ancestral homelands in the name of “conservation.” It’s often wrongly claimed that their lands are wildernesses even though tribal peoples have been dependent on, and managed, them for millennia.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “Tribal peoples are better at looking after their environments than anyone else – after all, they have been dependent on, and managed, them for millennia. If conservation is actually going to start working, conservationists need to ask tribal peoples what help they need to protect their land, listen to them, and then be prepared to back them up as much as possible. A major change in thinking about conservation is now urgently required.”

The authors, Professors Robert S. Walker and Kim R. Hill, maintain that “a well-designed contact can be quite safe,” but the examples of contact they choose to illustrate their point were in fact catastrophic, and left many of the tribespeople dead.

The idea that contact with such tribes will end happily as long as there are adequate safeguards is dangerously naive. Brazil has more expertise in this area than any other country, yet right now two recently contacted Awá women are critically ill with tuberculosis because they were left for months without proper healthcare after contact occurred.

Walker and Hill have also decided that isolated populations are "not viable in the long term.” At the same time, they acknowledge that there are about 50 such peoples in South America (in fact, there are more). Quite how these peoples aren’t “viable” isn’t explained, as many of them appear to be thriving.

The anthropologists’ statement would certainly come as news to perhaps the most isolated tribe in the world, the Sentinelese of the Indian Ocean, who have lived on their island for at least 15,000 years, and are visibly both “viable” and healthy.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “Walker and Hill play straight into the hands of those who want to open Amazonia up for resource extraction and ‘investment.’ That they claim this is for tribes’ own benefit is dangerous and misleading nonsense.

“Perhaps their most offensive justification for forcibly contacting isolated tribes is that ‘surviving indigenous populations rebound quickly from population crashes.’ The casual tone with which the authors dismiss the deaths of scores of men, women and children is deeply disturbing.

“Let there be no doubt: isolated tribes are perfectly viable, as long as their lands are protected. To think we have the right to invade their territories and make contact with them, whether they want it or not, with all the likely consequences, is pernicious and arrogant. The decision as to whether to make contact or not has to be one for the people themselves, not for outsiders who think they know what’s in the Indians’ best interests.”

A Guajajara Indian man fighting to protect the territory of his neighbors the Awá said: “It is simple: the uncontacted Awá need their forest. This is their home and nobody has the right to take it away from them, or to remove them from it. Without their land, our uncontacted relatives will not survive.”

And Wamaxua, a recently contacted Awá man, told Survival: “When I lived in the forest, I had a good life. Now, if I meet one of the uncontacted Awá in the forest, I’ll say: ‘Don’t leave! Stay in the forest… There’s nothing in the outside for you.’”

A controversial mega-project to build a transcontinental railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific has caused outrage among indigenous people and Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights.

The railway, which is backed by the Chinese government, would cross through many indigenous territories and areas of high biodiversity across the Amazon rainforest in Peru and Brazil. If realized, it would wreak havoc on indigenous peoples’ lands and lives by opening up the area to industrial exploitation, illegal mining and logging, and encourage colonization.

Ninawá Kaxinawá, an indigenous leader whose community lives near the proposed railway line, told Survival, “This railway is evil and it threatens our people. For us Indians and our uncontacted relatives this project represents a deadly danger which would put an end to our forest and our lives!”

Uncontacted tribes, the most vulnerable societies on the planet, would face devastation from invasions into their lands. Whole populations could be wiped out by violence from outsiders and by diseases like flu and measles to which they have no resistance.

Similar projects set a chilling precedent. In the 1980s, the 900 km Carajás railway line in Brazil’s north-eastern Amazon opened up the land of many tribes such as the isolated Awá, Earth’s most threatened tribe, to illegal loggers, cattle ranchers and settlers. Countless families were massacred and others succumbed to diseases brought in by outsiders, and rampant logging resulted in over 30% deforestation in the Awá’s central territory.

Decades later, illegal loggers still threaten the lives of uncontacted Awá. In December 2014, a group of three Awá were forced out of their forest home by loggers. Two of them are now critically ill.

The trans-Amazon railway will run over thousands of kilometers and is likely to cause even more devastation of the Amazon rainforest and its peoples. While studies show that tribal peoples are the best conservationists, their lands are facing an onslaught of development projects.

Survival International is calling on the Brazilian and Peruvian governments to uphold national and international laws, which require that indigenous peoples must be properly consulted and give their consent before projects that will affect them can go ahead. Because consultation with uncontacted tribes is impossible, their land must be protected to avoid catastrophe.

Stephen Corry, Director of Survival, said, “Projects like this amount to nothing more than the theft of tribal lands and – as always – they’re carried out in the name of ‘progress’ and ‘development.’ For centuries, the Indians of the Americas have been sacrificed at the altar of profit. Many don’t survive the onslaught against their lives and lands. Make no mistake – for uncontacted tribes this road is genocidal.”

An Arekuna spokesperson told Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, “Mining is a huge problem in our indigenous territories. The miners are extracting the riches of our land and the earth is crying out for help. Our rivers are drying up because of the mining. We must look after nature; if we don’t, the whole planet will suffer.”

Rivers are being contaminated with poisonous mercury used in gold mining, which is entering the Indians’ food and water supply and devastating their health. In some indigenous communities, the infiltration of gangs has led to prostitution and alcoholism.

A study found that the majority of indigenous women living along the Caura river in the Amazon had levels of mercury above internationally accepted standards. It also found that one in three women showed a high risk that their newborn children would suffer neurological disorders.

The Indians have denounced the Venezuelan military for failing to tackle the illegal mining and for “creating a climate of terror and fear.” Some officers are known to be involved in the illegal gold trade.

While Venezuela’s constitution recognizes indigenous peoples’ rights to their ancestral lands, few have received official title to their territories and the government has announced it will open up large parts of the Amazon rainforest – including Indian land – to legal mining.